Ever wondered just what God thinks of drinking? Here are 75 reasons for abstaining.

1. Genesis 9:20-26. The first drunkenness and the attendant immoral behaviour.

2. Genesis 19:30-38. Drinking results in Lot's debauchery of his own daughters.

3. Genesis 27:25. Isaac was drinking when he mistakenly blessed Jacob.

4. Leviticus 10:9. An express command not to drink.

5. Numbers 6:3. The vow of the Nazarite.

6. Deuteronomy 21:20. Drinking leads to stubbornness, rebellion, and gluttony and brings dishonour to parents.

7. Deuteronomy 29:2-6. Abstinence assures a closer walk with God.

8. Judges 13:4, 7, 14. Samson's mother, an example of all womanhood, was commanded not to drink. Was alcohol recognised even then as a protoplasmic poison, injuring posterity?

9. 1 Samuel 1:14, 15. Hannah, an example of honored motherhood, refrained from drinking wine.

10. 1 Samuel 25:32-38. Nabal, a rich but churlish man who opposed David, died after a drunken spree. He had already lost his wife's respect.

11. 2 Samuel 11:13. By having Uriah plied with strong drink, David attempted to cover his own sin.

12. 2 Samuel 13:28-29. Ammon, in a drunken brawl, was murdered by his brother, Absalom.

13. 1 Kings 16:8-10. While a king was 'drinking himself drunk" in his own home, one of his captains consipired against him and slew him.

14. 1 Kings 20:12-21. Drink and war. While Benhadad and thirty-two other kings were drinking in their pavilions, a small band of Israel's men fell upon the Syrians and put them to flight.

15. Esther 1:5-22. Drink wrecks homes and separates man and wife. At a week's feast of food and wine, King Ahasuerus drunkenly tried to subject his queen to the beastly gaze of inebriated nobles, causing separation of the royal husband and wife.

16. Job 1:18, 19. The children of Job were feasting and drinking when blown away in a cyclone.

17. Proverbs 4:17. Violence results from drinking.

18. Proverbs 20:1. No wise man will indulge.

19. Proverbs 21:17. He that loveth wine is not rich.

20. Proverbs 23:21. Drinking leads to poverty.

21. Proverbs 23:29, 30. Strong drink produces sorrow, contentions, wounds without cause, babblings, redness of eyes.

22. Proverbs 23:31. Do not be tempted by intoxicants.

23. Proverbs 23:32. God's Word warns that liquor eventually harms all who drink .

24. Proverbs 23:33. It fills men's minds with adulterous and impure thoughts.

25. Proverbs 23:33. It produces willfulness and prevents reformation.

26. Proverbs 23:34. It brings on insecurity.

27. Proverbs 23:35. Insensibility follows drinking, rendering a man as a clod.

28. Proverbs 23:35. Habit forming. One drink calls for another.

29. Proverbs 31:4, 5. Kings and all other rulers or officials with the weight of human lives in their control should not indulge.

30. Proverbs 31:6, 7. The only sanction for the use of strong drink was as a medicine or anesthetic for those about to die. We now know better medicines and anesthetics than whisky, wine or beer.

31. Ecclesiastes 2:3; 12:8. The writer of Ecclesiastes tried strong drink, but in the end was forced to admit that it, too, is vanity.

32. Ecclesiastes 10:17. Blessings are promised to the temperate and abstaining nations.

33. Isaiah 5:11, 12. Woe to the drunkards.

34. Isaiah 5:22. More woes to them who drink.

35. Isaiah 22:13. Drinking and carnality go together, leaving men hopeless.

36. Isaiah 24:9. Drink is bitter to those who drink it.

37. Isaiah 28:1. Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim.

38. Isaiah 28:3. The pride of drunkards will be trodden down.

39. Isaiah 28:7. Prophets and priests erred through drink.

40. Isaiah 28:7. Those who drink are set aside as useless.

41. Isaiah 28:7. Prophets and priests finally swallowed up by drink.

42. Isaiah 28:7. Drinking brings on spiritual blindness.

43. Isaiah 56:9-12. Rebuke to drinking church members, His watchmen.

44. Jeremiah 35:5, 6, 8, 14. Total abstinence of the Rechabites cited as an example of obedience on the part of God's people.

45. Ezekiel 44:21. Priests are not to drink wine.

46. Daniel 1:5, 8, 16; 10:3. God honored Daniel because he abstained from the king's wine. Daniel, the man, was true to the home training he had received as a boy.

47. Daniel 5:1. Beshazzar exhibited as an example of a leader who drank and taught his people to drink.

48. Daniel 5:2, 23. A nation whose women drink.

49. Daniel 5:5-9, 25-28. Ruin and downfall for nations whose rulers and leaders cause them to drink.

50. Daniel 5:3. Belshazzar's sacrilege in using sacred temple vessels for liquor.

51. Hosea 3:1. Part of degradation of Hosea's wife induced by drink (King James Version).

52. Hosea 4:11. Strong drink and immorality go hand in hand.

53. Hosea 7:5. King and people reproved because of drinking.

54. Joel 1:5. Drunkards to awake from their drinking.

55. Joel 3:3. Young virtue sold for the price of drink.

56. Amos 2:8. Wine of the condemned.

57. Amos 2:12. Pollution of the innocent.

58. Amos 4:1. Dissolute women, oppressors of the poor, call for their liquor.

59. Amos 6:6. Drinkers not concerned about God or the welfare of others.

60. Nahum 1:10. Drunkards to be destroyed.

61. Habakkuk 2:5. Arrogance inflamed by drink.

62. Habakkuk 2:15. Wrong to give one's neighbor drink. Social drinking.

63. Habakkuk 2:16. Drink leads to shame and humiliation.

64. Matthew 24:48-51. Drunkards warned about the return of Christ and His judgment.

65. Luke 1:15. Greatness of John the Baptist linked with his total abstinence.

66. Luke 12:45. Christ warns against being enmeshed in drink evils.

67. Luke 21:34. Warning against drunkenness and the cares of this life which follow, keeping one occupied to the exclusion of the Spirit.

68. Romans 13:13. All are admonished to walk honestly, not in rioting and drunkenness. It is not honest to be less than men, created in the image of God.

69. Romans 14:21. Drinking causes a brother to stumble. Importance of example.

70. 1 Corinthians 6:10. No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God (therefore the preaching of the Gospel must include alcohol education).

71. 1 Corinthians 11:25. The Lord's Supper no place for wine. Word wine not even used. Instead all accounts say "the cup" or "fruit of the vine."

72. Galatians 5:21. Revelers in drunkenness shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.

73. Ephesians 5:18. Direct command that exhilaration shall be of the Spirit and not by wine.

74. 1 Thessalonians 5:7. Sobriety enjoined upon the Thessalonians. Children of light must not be overcome by darkness.

75. 1 Timothy 3:3, 8, 11, 12. Church officers must not drink; neither should their families.

(Based on a compilation by W. Albert Smith, pastor of First Baptist Church, Sheffield, Alabama.)